Saarloos Marner

I'm gonna get a little Dennis Miller on you here. The Yankees may as well have fielded George Eliot tonight, babe. He's about the only one who could figure out that stingy miser on the mound.

Those are the breaks. Moose pitched well. Saarloos was better. The Yanks left 14 men on base, but the A's also left 13. It came down to execution with runners in scoring position, and the Athletics got their hits today. No real shame for the Yankees. The thing is, after averaging 7 runs between the start of the Mets' series on May 19th, and the 13-5 win against Josh Beckett on June 5th (17 games), the Yanks have turned around and put up 3 runs a game over the last 4. It's a minor blip in a long season and quite understandable given the rash of injuries we've had. Still, the bats are ice cold. We should be eating the A's for breakfast. The young players are being asked to do a lot and have performed nicely, but we still need the big sticks to produce. Thompson's homer shows why he should be in right field everyday, while Bernie is planted on the bench. Giambi is hot, but Damon and Jeter have gone 1-18 in the last two games and the offense has stalled.

Jeter's struggles are quite understandable, and may be the most deciding factor in the scoring slump. Think about it for a second. Without our .340 hitter in the lineup you lose one of the top bats in the Majors. You also replace him at shortstop with a guy with a negative WARP rating and a 13 runs below average defensive rating at SS, in Miguel Cairo. With Derek in the lineup as the DH, Giambi has to play the field, which is an adventure. That means red hot Andy Phillips sits on the bench, while Cairo gets to piss away at bats. That shows something about the value of our own Little Derek Horner and his thumb.

If Jeter can't throw, it stands to reason that he can't grip a bat very well. I wonder if his attempt to play through the injury is the best thing in the long run. We're missing a chance to get Andy Phillips in there everyday to accomodate Jeter, but at what cost. Let's keep an eye on it. Another 0-fer may define the cost of Jeter's DHing.

Not a problem. With the Red Sox loss, we're only a half game out of first. All the injuries haven't seen us lose ground in the AL East, and it seems the youngsters have helped us to gain ground. Barry Zito hasn't fared well against the Bombers in the past, and maybe we can salvage the series against him with a big win tomorrow. The Stockings have to play a split double-header tomorrow against the Rangers because of all the rain in Boston, which sounds like a terrible experience. Is the weather going to be any better for that one? Have faith. Go Yanks. See you tomorrow.